Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knows that unilateral cuts by the federal government devastated health care and education in Canada. They reflected combative federalism at its very worst.
Now the conference board confirms that the costs the provinces must pay are going up sharply while their revenues grow much more slowly. The opposite is the case federally. The surplus is growing. There is a fundamental imbalance in our federation.
Rather than camouflage the problem with transfer payments, will the government ask the Standing Committee on Finance to look seriously at repairing the serious fiscal imbalance in Canada?